The Fab Bag team is on a roll with their bag designs, after June’s style punch ‘Too Glam to Give a Damn’ Bag, the humidity-ridden July got us a bluish purple bag with light pink-mauvish boundaries and spattered with kisses or pouts – what have you!

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My mix for July 2016 included:

Fab Bag goodies July

What’s in the bag?

Sugar Matte As Hell Crayon Lipstick – Poison Ivy (Full size)

Neemly Bengal Gram Exfoliator (Full Size)

Pep Moisture Velvet Shampoo (Full Size)

Johara Instant Radiance face Scrub

Sugar Matte As Hell Crayon Lipstick – Poison Ivy (Full size Rs 799)

I discovered Sugar – the brand – thanks to Fab Bag and the clumsy make-up novice in me tried their easy-peasy I Told You So eye-liner, Black Swan, I was a fan. Next I received the Sugar Matte As Hell Crayon Lipstick called Mary Poppins. I was convinced this brand deserves a permanent space in among our make-up favourites.

The lip colour is all-intense pigment, stays on a fairly long time and is matte as hell. The product is decently priced and easy to carry. Unlike your frosted or liquid ‘spill here, stain there’ variety of little lipsticks, this one’s actually a stick and it sticks. The intense fuchsia frenzy called Mary Poppins is my go-to colour every couple of days and the July edition’s Poison Ivy is now in to give Poppins a little competition. The deepest delicious wine-red in Poison Ivy is just prefect. So obviously, this one’s my numero uno favourite from this months edition.

Neemly Bengal Gram Exfoliator (Full Size, Rs 425 for 50 gm)

I haven’t got the chance to try the product, the reason being its packaging. I didn’t have a jar handy and available and leaving out a powdered product like this one, without an air-tight arrangement would be tricky.

Pep Moisture Velvet Shampoo (Full Size, Rs 119 for 50 ML)

I’d like to call this the surprise winner of the July Bag. Pep gets its body from Oat Protein and, as the say, protein is mostly good for you. I was initially sceptical of trying an unknown brand with zero presence or information listed online; may I add that my hair is temperamental, rather long and in perfect tandem with my sensitive skin. Frizz or fall flat are both easy scenarios with the wrong shampoo… and most turn out to be wrong for me. However, I was pleasantly surprised. Pep brings the always coveted and much-needed bounce (even to my long tresses), leaves your hair with a mild lasting summer-friendly refreshing fragrance and keeps your hair in decent shape till two-three days after shampooing.

It would have been nice for Fab Bag to at least list the product or information on whether it will be available in the future.

Johara Instant Radiance face Scrub (Rs 500 for 100 gm)

#IMFO says: Neat packaging and colour scheme and an inviting introduction to the product.

However, despite the mildly pleasing fragrance and contents, this one didn’t quite work for me. The write-up on the card in the bag on Johara spelt all things nice. The tagline reads- What we don’t like and you will not find in the products: Paraben Free, Sulfate Free, Formaldehyde Free, Synthetic Dye Free, Animal Ingredients, Animal Testing – all good stuff but… This amalgamation of Ayurveda and science had a little less scrub in its scrub. Basically, the ratio of scrubby bits (walnut extracts) in the whole mix wasn’t sufficient. I had to take heaps of the products, when normally only one coin-sized drop does the magic for me with the brands I use.

On to the mix, apart from ultra-fine walnut extracts and a blend of lemon peel extract along with neem oil, they also use Cococin CG, a nutrient-rich extract from tender coconut water. Overall the creamy texture, the fragrance and the after-scrub feel is good. Could’ve been better with a little more nutty-scrubby extract.

#IMFO verdict: Sugar Matte As Hell Poison Ivy and Pep Shampoo are July’s best takeaways, others not so much. The bag rocked.